Vol. 472 No. 3
267 Mr. H. Byrne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will elaborate on his assertion that the quantities of output at the nine approved meat and bonemeal plants in the country is commercially sensitive information, further to his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 168 of 6 November 1996; the regulations or agreement which preclude him from disclosing this information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23067/96]
As I indicated in reply to Parliamentary Question No. 168 of 6 November the annual output of individual rendering plants is commercially sensitive information and is not published by my Department on an individual plant basis. I am not precluded by regulation or agreement from supplying such information which is available to my Department but I consider that no useful purpose would be served by so doing. Details of the total output of the rendering industry have been made available to the Deputy.
268 Mr. H. Byrne asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will publish in full the audits carried out by his Department, by agencies under the aegis of his Department or supplied to him by the industry in respect of meat and bonemeal in view of his stated opinion that the feeding of banned meat and bonemeal to cattle after 1990 has contributed to the incidence of BSE in Ireland and mindful of the serious issues of public health arising; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23068/96]
Every case of BSE is examined thoroughly by my Department to seek to ascertain the likely cause. In most of the cases, consumption of feeding stuffs has been shown. Prior to 1990 this would have invariably involved feed containing meat and bonemeal. Following the imposition of the ban on feeding meat and bonemeal to cattle in August, 1990, it is probable that a certain amount of feed containing meat and bonemeal remained on farms and some of this would have been fed to cattle. Additionally, testing of cattle feedingstuffs revealed the presence of meat and bonemeal, most likely caused by cross-contamination. In view of the foregoing and of the fact that there had been a significant number of cases of BSE in cattle which were born after the ban on feeding meat and bonemeal to cattle, I introduced regulations effective from 17 October last which are designed to strengthen controls on the manufacture, possession etc. of meat and bonemeal and to minimise the possibility of cross-contamination of cattle feed.
